21 May 2018

Pathways, designed for whom?

Different ages

Pat Johnson with the 250 Learning Masters for years studied what Learning Toastmasters need, now, with modern times. They did decide on 5 different Personas.1. The new professional, student, needing new skills to cope. 2. The mid manager, to practice and learn skills.3. The senior retired who want to continue developing, learning.4. The professional speaker needing feedback in a Toastmasters club.5. The toastmasters whose English is 2nd, 3rd or 4th language.Are you any of those?

Different professions and mother languages

But also that it should apply for different professions, from students, workers, leaders. Different age groups and cultures around the world too.As for me, you could put me in the 4th and 5th category.

Different kind of work

The most important is that Pathways was not build to just one category, but with multiple different "population" or future or existing members in mind.

Different mother languages

Most important, of course, that is for sure not only designed for one "kind" of members or group. Yes, it is easier perhaps for young, used to work almost all day with computers, or like my grand daughter to hop on to google when she is asked a questions, anytime she looks for an answer, but well, not only my case but others at my age who begun after retirement, we can learn and have a lot pleasure from it too. It could be we do have some problems at the beginning, my son or grand-daughter would not have, but once we understand, no problem. He had to show me how to open my window for the whole screen and tell my browser, Safari in my case, to open a new tab with every link I clicked on. Then a window would not hide another and I also did not have to stretch each time my project to see the arrows.

Toastmasters like tomatoes come in different shapes and forms. Diversity is normal.

Whichever category we are in, we can learn how to avoid what bothers us, or, get used, look forward and enjoy the ride.